The services sector plays an increasingly important role in the global economy and the growth and development of countries.

Services are becoming crucial in a country's development, including in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, such as poverty reduction and access to basic services, including education and health services.

UNCTAD has implemented a comprehensive work programme on services, trade and development with a view to assisting developing countries in developing their services sectors, increasing their participation in services trade and realizing development benefits. This work enjoys extensive complementarity between the three pillars of UNCTAD's operations.

UNCTAD has published the Services Policy Review requested by Lesotho, which sets out a strategic vision for the development of the country’s services sector. The publication provides an overview of Lesotho’s services economy and an in-depth analysis of the financial, health and tourism sectors.

Developing economies services trade continued to grow, while developed countries recorded a slight decrease. According to preliminary estimates by UNCTAD and WTO, world services exports grew by modest 2% in 2012. All regions except Africa experienced a much lower growth than in 2011.

According to preliminary estimates by the WTO and UNCTAD, in the fourth quarter of 2012, world exports of commercial services grew by 3 %, as compared with the same quarter of the year before. The estimates point to a modest, but certain recovery of global services trade at the end of the year, after 2% decline recorded in the third quarter. Preliminary figures (balance-of-payments basis, current prices) indicate that the observed growth was led by Asia and Oceania (8%) and Northern America (5%). At the same time, Europe's services exports remained stagnant, at the level of exports recorded for the last 3 months of 2011.